Other plots and plans

Posted on April 1, 2015 by Homesown@thedevelopingplot

After the hours of digging last week, the plot has had to develop without any help from me. Now the neglected allotment and garden need a little effort and attention. Have also been busy trying to get organised for the first stall next week at Wolvercote Farmers Market. Definitely won’t be any flowers from the plot, but daffodils and tulips in pots might be ready but the ranunculus have a way to go.

Daffodils (cheerfulness) in bud

Daffodils (cheerfulness) in bud

There will be different small (and slightly larger) plants for sale though for the Homesown stall I run with flower friend. The achillea Cerise Queen is looking fine; the moth mullein are also vigorous and the Geranium Phaeums flourish. The chocolate mint plants are growing on and filling their pots too.

Chocolate mint getting bigger

Chocolate mint getting bigger

My (mostly) patient life partner will be pleased for some space to walk around the outside of our house so I hope some sell. If not, our garden and the allotment will be beautifully crammed.

The wind is blowing in fury as it has done all night. Another cold frame is missing its lid and the plants outside have been given a bit of a bruising, but I am going out to weed and mulch and if I am brave enough, inspect damage to the slowly developing plot.

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Holiday Catch Up

Posted on March 27, 2015 by Homesown@thedevelopingplot

This must be one of the very nicest of times for a teacher/ gardener/ developing flower grower as it the Easter two week holiday and Spring is definitely here and the clocks are about to change and there will be an abundance of light and time that there hasn’t been yet.

Healthy blue clary seedlings ready to be potted on

Healthy blue clary seedlings ready to be potted on

Unlike my lovely colleagues, I am not the type to be disciplined and work tonight and tomorrow to get ahead. Instead, I will be hazily hatching plans for the plot and the allotment. Thinking about all the things I will do tomorrow which might, in fact, never get done. But there will be time to prick out the Cosmos ‘Purity’ seedlings, along with the blue clary and pot on the tomatoes.

Stocky Gardener's Delight almost ready to be potted on.

Stocky Gardener’s Delight almost ready to be potted on.

With two weeks to catch up (and even get ahead). it couldn’t feel more hopeful.

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Keeping Up

Posted on March 24, 2015 by Homesown@thedevelopingplot

Getting closer and closer to a school holiday when I hope to catch up on everything that needs catching up on –  from the neglected allotment to the front and back gardens and thedevelopingplot. The latter has had the most of my little attention recently, but the end of this week will mean more free and flexible time which is always precious.

While I am fretting about all the different complications in my work and family life, my little plants are growing steadfastly on – even surviving my lack of watering and casual neglect. The sweet peas I left outside by mistake seem fine as do the ammi majus and the little plants of moth mullein which have flourished in the sunshine over last few days.

Sweet peas growing cheerfully surrounded by moth mullein getting bigger

Sweet peas growing cheerfully surrounded by moth mullein getting bigger

Everything is putting on a silent sprint of growth, but like my marking they will have to wait for the weekend and holiday to be sorted out.

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Morning Glory seedlings in cold frame

Feel unexpectedly behind suddenly,  especially as I haven’t planted any seeds for the last week. Black cornflowers, calendula and nigella  will be sown at home and directly as soon as Friday comes. Not to mention larkspur, corncockle and scabious.

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Some Plot Developments

Posted on March 22, 2015 by Homesown@thedevelopingplot

It turned out to be a clear blue sky day when we got to the plot this morning. Last night, my oldest friend had driven up from London to give me some digging time today. The soil was still quite sticky, heavy and cold, but we got digging anyway. The roots of  some of the docks we levered out were huge and the brightest carrot orange I have seen. There are lots more to go, but we have definitely made progress.

The beginning of the plot

The beginning of the plot

Definitely some progress

Definitely some progress

With a brief stop for coffee and cupcakes in the sun, we dug for hours. So there is a newly dug bed across the back of the plot where it gets lots of sun. Added some peat free compost on top as a mulch, but it will need much more to improve drainage and break up the heaviness of the clay. Will also add pea shingle before putting in my sweet peas. These are hardening off nicely outside and in cold frames at home.

The new bed across the back of the plot for lots of sweet peas.

The new bed across the back of the plot for lots of sweet peas.

All the plants I put in the plot last week look healthy and settled in. The orlaya is a bit brown at the edges, but seems to recovering and the sweet rocket is shiny and green. More achillea cerise queen have been planted and have risked planting out some of the many moth mullein plants which have overwintered in pots.

Achillea cerise queen with small sweet rocket

Achillea cerise queen with small sweet rocket

Even though there are probably at least 4 more beds to be dug, feel that the plot has moved on noticeably. So many thanks to hard working, digging friend.

Will definitely be ordering ranunculus picotee now!

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Spring restlessness

Posted on March 21, 2015 by Homesown@thedevelopingplot

It is all very well for those who live in Cornwall to give you the sound advice about waiting until April to sow hardy annuals if you live further north (I am talking to you Mr Higgledy).  For me living in chillier Oxford, there is too strong a longing to get everything started  to resist opening up my annual seed packets in earlier March. So on my windowsills and cold frames are a mixture of the sturdy and the leggy – the latter living proof of the soundness of the advice.

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Leggy cosmos purity

Maybe potting on up to their seed leaves will sort things out. Even if they do have to be composted, the hope they gave emerging from compost is probably worth the sacrifice.

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Less leggy seedlings growing on fine

No time for sowing, plotting or planting today, but tomorrow is set aside for digging new beds at the plot. Also for ordering seeds from Derry Watkins from SpecialPlants which I have visited on various (always sunny) days. Have made a start and my basket is pretty full already (and I am only on the page for C) so perhaps some cool prioritising tomorrow is needed. Looking at the unusual range of choices on her website, makes me rethink my decision to just sell flowers because there is a lot of pleasure to be had sowing and growing on new and beautiful plants.

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Planting on the Plot

Posted on March 17, 2015 by Homesown@thedevelopingplot

A chill returned this weekend but my perennials growing in pots had been hardening off out of the cold greenhouse and on the plot itself. The knautia looked very cheerfully stocky and the strong white roots were creeping gently out of their pots so decided to get them in the ground in the almost weed free soil of the second bed. Added pea shingle to help drainage and peat free compost on the top. The seeds were from Higgledy Garden and the plants promise to be different shades of pink. Last year’s flowers from the garden looked wavy and wiry and wildish in my experimental bundles of flowers at the market.

The plant left over with its slightly weather beaten outer leaves will go in the garden at home.

Bit battered but healthy knautia

Bit battered but healthy knautia

Looking at the two planted up beds at the plot, it was reassuring to realise that the planting had all been done at home from seed and that the sweet rocket, achillea, cornflowers and direct sown larkspur had not needed much outlay, though sowing, pricking out and potting on over months did take time.

The emerging tulips on the other hand are a different story.

Cosmos Dazzler growing steadily on cool windowsill

Cosmos Dazzler growing steadily on cool windowsill

Windowsill seeds at home making good progress, but looking forward to when it is warm enough for some direct sowing.

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Learning how to make posies

Posted on March 14, 2015 by Homesown@thedevelopingplot
Beautiful British flowers arranged by a beginner at CommonFarmFlowers

Beautiful British flowers
arranged by a beginner (me) at CommonFarmFlowers

Up early to head off to Somerset with flower friend to learn how to make a hand tied bouquet and jam jar posies at CommonFarmFlowers with Georgie Newbery. It was only a couple of weeks ago that I was there to learn about flower farming. That was a full day’s intensive course packed with useful advice and was excellent. Today’s course was just a few hours long and more leisurely, but still full of things to learn and excellent too.

Growing flowers and learning about how to do it is hugely exciting for me and the more I learn the happier it makes me feel. Arranging them? Not so much…

But I want to grow flowers to sell at my local farmers markets and don’t think I can just rely on the kind help of my confident and artistic friends. Previous courses and attempts have not helped. Tangled up in stems, I have become even grumpier than usual.

Today, after Georgie’s clear and accessible demonstration of how to do a hand tied bunch I had a surge of optimism that this time it was going to be different. Then it was time to begin and blank anxiety set in for just more than a moment. Everyone was jolly and Georgie was encouraging and so I decided just to get on with it. My bunch turned out to look like a bunch of beautiful flowers.

Lots of lovely flowers to take home

Lots of lovely flowers to take home

Though not as aesthetically lovely as some others it is looking natural, fresh and bright on my kitchen table.

On kitchen table

On kitchen table

We also learned how to make jam pot posies with the lovely flowers which were left over and these miniature bunches were just as beautiful and, as I was working on a smaller scale, less daunting.

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Now I just need the flowers to get growing, though I can’t imagine they will be as perfect as these.

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Growing steadily for the Plot

Posted on March 13, 2015 by Homesown@thedevelopingplot

Sometimes it seems to me as if it will be October before there are any flowers ready to cut and sell. Until recently, the pots planted up with tulips were stubbornly just showing soil and the seedlings seemed to be frozen at a very early stages of development, but today, although not very warm, most things seem to have nudged on nicely.

The tulip beaks are pushing towards the light and seem to have grown an inch since yesterday.

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Tulips emerging

While the ammi majus  seedlings look cheerful both inside and outside of the cold frame.

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All the seeds planted last weekend have germinated and the windowsills and cold frames are getting fuller and fuller.

Tomorrow off on a jaunt with my friend and farmers market partner  for a Mother’s Day treat – learning how to make a hand tied bouquet with Georgie Newbery at CommonFarmFlowers so that when my flowers do finally bloom I will know what to do with them.

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Balancing work and plot

Posted on March 8, 2015 by Homesown@thedevelopingplot

Thankfully today was grey and damp so that I couldn’t be so easily seduced from the piles of proper job work I needed to finish before tomorrow. This work can a pleasure in itself, but not as immediately attractive as being outside and making progress at the plot (or neglected allotment).

So lots of bargains were made with myself as the day progressed: early morning clear up at allotment had to be followed by essay marking. Another portion of indoor work was completed before mooching off to pot on penstemon and mint.

White penstemon home sown and ready to be planted at the plot

White penstemon home sown and ready to be planted at the plot

 

 

One chocolate mint hopefully turning into 5

One chocolate mint hopefully turning into five

Once the light has gone, the magnet to resist is House of Cards …

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Seeds, butterflies and bumblebees

Posted on March 7, 2015 by Homesown@thedevelopingplot

A beautiful day for planting seeds under cover and pottering around outside in the sunshine pricking out cosmos seeds and potting on moth mullein. There were yellow butterflies floating across the garden and fat bumblebees enjoying the flowers on the winter honeysuckle.

Moth mullein just potted on

Moth mullein just potted on

Noticeable growth and progress from last weekend with tiny blue clary seedlings inside poking through the compost from the sowing last Sunday. They are one of my favourite flowers for cutting and last year kept going and going until self seeding in Autumn.

Salvia seedlings sown last sunday

Salvia seedlings sown last sunday

 

Cosmos Dazzler pricked out into small pots

Today, I am going to put into action another one of the sensible pieces of advice from Georgie Newbery’s flower farming course which is to only use fresh seed. A few weeks ago mentioned sowing old packets of seed – very few of them actually germinated while some of the fresh seed was up in just a few days and all the fresh seed germinated after a week or so. It is definitely a waste of time doing my twice daily check on seed germination to gaze at lifeless compost which disappointingly doesn’t produce anything very much. So there is going to be a fresh start and a ruthless purge – apart from my tomato seeds which seem to last forever.

Tempted to plant out some of my plants at the plot today as they have weathered winter outside and seem quite hardy, but the soil seemed so wet and cold last weekend it seems a bit harsh . Perhaps with a blanket of fleece.

Meanwhile, still sunny and lots more seeds to plant.

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